Fever-Reducing Meds Spreading The Flu?

“Contrary to popular belief, fever-reducing medication may inadvertently cause more harm than good.” Researchers from McMaster University have made a recent discovery about fever-reducing drugs. The more people that use these medications, the more widespread a virus could become. How does this work? Drugs including acetaminophen, ibuprofen and acetylsalicylic are used consistently by miserable people to reduce the symptoms that come with having a fever; however, their comfort might actually be infecting others as well. Having a fever is the body’s way of creating a defense against whatever virus is floating around; in fact fever can actually reduce the amount of virus in a sick person, keeping it from spreading. Taking drugs that reduce these fevers are leaving the virus alone long enough for it to become transmittable. The bottom line is, suppressing fevers leads to approximately 5% increase in annual cases, ultimately leading to 1,000 more deaths yearly. Parents who give their children medicine to lower their fever so they can attend school, are giving everyone around them a higher risk at contracting these illnesses; these illnesses are often, but not limited to, influenza. Even though it sounds horrible, next time you are sick, maybe just suffer a little more and not take fever-reducing medicine so you don’t spread your sickness everywhere else.

I thought this article was interesting because growing up, I’ve always been the sick one in the family. I am not sure if my immune system is asleep all the time or what, but I am often coming down with some type of cold. One of the first things I almost always do is take something to reduce my fever. I can see the point; fevers make you feel awful. However, after reading this, it’s no wonder my family nearly always would get whatever I had had! Who knew that by taking medicine, these viruses could somehow manage to become even more transmittable? The author of the article did a nice job of summarizing what exactly the researchers had, and were currently discovering. However, it would’ve been nice to know more details about how exactly the medicine was capable of empowering the viruses. It makes sense now that I think about it, but I think if the author had taken a more scientific approach to the article, it would’ve been a lot more interesting. It also would’ve been beneficial to know more about which viruses this most commonly occurred with; the author did state that influenza was the most common among the death count, but it makes me wonder what other viruses are effected by this. Are all viruses this way? Just some? How do we know? Should we have to suffer through every fever we have, just in case there’s a possibility of transferring it? These are important questions left unanswered; I do hope they publish another article with more information sometime soon. It’s bound to be interesting.

Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140122091318.htm

Image: http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/1.570458

Hospitals Made of Stone? No, Copper!

Hospitals are horrible places to be. No matter what you are in there for; visiting a relative, working, or there for yourself, hospitals are not a place you want to hang out. Even making a trip to the emergency room, one is often persuaded to wear a mask whilst sitting there. Who wants to catch that icky stuff floating around? And heaven forbid if the person three seats down from you sneezes? Yuck! And then there’s the real fun stuff. Say you go in for surgery; regular surgery because you broke your leg or something along those lines. You’re going to have to use those bathrooms, touch those door handles, inhale those germs. Now image all the serious infections fluttering about. You may be in there for a broken leg, while the person one room over has MRSA or some horrid stomach disease. You may think the wall protects you, but who knows who was in there before you? You can only hold your breath for so long; not like that would particularly help considering most of these awful infections are contracted through contact.

Over 100,000 people die yearly from contraction of an infection that they didn’t have when they went in. Hospital staff fight it the best they can with sanitization and hand washing, but can only do so much. However, according to the Copper Development Association’s Antimicrobial Copper Website, copper seems to be the solution. It seems as though bacteria doesn’t like it. Supposedly, copper can continuously kill 99.9% of bacteria within two hours of contact. They are proposing that door handles, plumbing, and as much as they possibly can be made of copper. When researchers took culture from the copper surfaces, the amount of microbes had “dropped well below what is considered to be a risk.” The copper did this on it’s own without anything added except for standard cleaning. So how does this wonderful new discovery work? Copper’s killing power is nothing more than the fact that metal is a conductor of electricity. The microbes are literally being short-circuited. Copper is easily recyclable and is never thrown away. Our hospitals may have a new look to them sometime in the future.

Article: http://health.howstuffworks.com/medicine/healthcare/copper-kills-microbes-and-bacteria-could-save-lives.htm

Image: http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/14/copper-in-hospital-rooms-may-stop-infections/

Microbes Can Make Beautiful Butterflies!

The red postman butterfly takes bacterial ‘makeup’ to a whole new beautiful level! Recent studies at the University of Colorado have finally sequenced the three major life stages of a butterfly, showing some surprising changes during metamorphosis. Using DNA sequencing methods, they were able to categorize the microbial communities that make up each stage of a butterfly’s life, caterpillar, pupae and adults and establish what the microbes did in order to achieve the next stage. The results were astonishing. Going from caterpillar to pupae, the bacteria halved itself, then doubled again to morph into an adult. It seemed as though the microbes simplified and reorganized themselves during each process.

This is important because according to the article, the same process in other insects often leaves them with digestion and nutritional problems, and too weak to defend themselves against predators. Also, the transformation of butterflies is a beautiful thing in itself, and until now, we never really knew how it all happened. How something that’s all squirmy and squishy can turn itself into a catalyst, and come out vibrant and virtually a totally different creature. They chose to examine the red postman butterfly because they’ve already proven to have a different microbial anatomy than other species of butterflies. This specific group has learned to feed on pollen instead of nectar, which extends their lives from weeks to months. “This is a unique trait to this genus and could be mediated by its microbiome.” It’s very interesting to see that even though they’re categorized as a butterfly, some simple differences in their microbes can have the largest effects on them.

Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140130111005.htm

Image: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140130111005.htm

Are Cell Phones Worse Than What's Clinging To The Bottom Of Your Shoes?

“That devices can be a source of disease transmission is not a subject of debate anymore,” said a disease specialist studying the persistence of bacteria on iPads. Much like Sami and I thought during our in class microbe experiment, cell phones are being proven to be one of the dirtiest things we touch throughout the day. Think about it. They go with us everywhere. We touch them constantly. They are taken into public, school, friend’s, and our personal restrooms, lent to snot-faced toddlers to keep them quiet during church, passed around to share photos, and pressed against sweaty skin in gyms. We touch our cell phones more than we touch anything else during the day, and take into consideration how often you wash your hands. Even if you wash your hands after the restroom, how often do you wash your hands after you touch your cell phone before you eat? It’s really quite revolting.

When reading this article, I was somewhat surprised how little time the author spent on the germy nastiness. The article was quite clearly more focused on how to clean your devices than what you will actually be cleaning off of them. She talks about how not only is it important to stay healthy, but she zooms in more on how it’s important to maintain the resale value. Personally, I would’ve rather heard much more about what I’m constantly touching and putting up to my face, vs. how much my phone will be worth if I keep it’s screen clean. “People don’t want any marks or grime on their devices.” I don’t think the author did a fair job of teaching us the kinds of things this grime actually has and why it’s super beneficial to steer clear of it. If she’s trying to convince us to clean our phones, she would’ve been more effective describing the accumulation of crap on our phones, “that is worse than what is on the bottom of [our] shoes.”

Something to think about; this is the crap found on this phone…look at the difference in cell phone types…imagine what are on ours considering they are not only used for making calls anymore, but played with constantly….? Ew.

Picture: http://www.wormsandgermsblog.com/2010/07/articles/diseases/test-subcategory/biohazardous-cell-phones/

Information: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/02/technology/personaltech/cleaning-the-mobile-germ-warehouse.html?_r=0

Gut Flora Causing Autism?

         A study of mice suggests that certain forms of autism may in fact be sprouting from chemical imbalances within the body. Where are these imbalances coming from might you ask? Microbes. Recent studies show that mice with microbes in their gut often have leaks in their intestines, leaving the microbes to invade their blood. They are obtaining high levels of chemicals that are similar to compounds found in the urine of children with autism. These mice are having autistic behavior such as social inclusion and even lacking verbal communication with others. When given a probiotic, the bacteria reduced the amount of leakage and did not correct, but improved their behavior, suggesting this can be done with children as well.

         The author’s wording is critical throughout her writing, as she is very careful to not make specific statements about whether or not all of this is fully true. She gives the evidence and results found with the mice, but does not clearly state it as a guarantee. She goes on to explain that women who suffer from infections or high fever during pregnancy, often have a greater risk of their child having autism, similarly to mice. However, once tested, the mother mice that were given infections, often acquired leaks in their intestines. The author goes into great detail about the kinds of chemicals found in their gut, giving the reader that much more knowledge about what’s going on. However her description is well done, she jumps back and forth between subjects, making it hard to follow. I would say she ended the article quite well with stating, “Though the study is fascinating and important, much more research is needed to establish whether people with autism have similar microbe-related problems” (Saey, Tina Hesman, Autism may be linked to chemicals produced by microbes in the gut).

Click to enlarge photo.

Article: http://ehis.ebscohost.com.libproxy.unm.edu/ehost/detail?vid=8&sid=762893eb-275f-4c27-bc68-48cb44d58103%40sessionmgr115&hid=101&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT

1zaXRl#db=a9h&AN=93453430

Picture:  https://asunews.asu.edu/files/gutflorainfographiclarge.jpeg